Gunmen on motorbike kill governor in Afghanistan

Kabul, Dec 1 (DPA) Two Taliban fighters on motorbike shot dead a district governor in southern Afghanistan Monday morning, the latest in a series of assassinations of senior provincial officials.Abdul Rahim Desiwal, governor of Andar district in Ghazni province, was killed in front of his house in the provincial capital, also called Ghazni, as he was on his way to his office, his spokesman Ismail Jahangir said.

The spokesman said one of Desiwal’s bodyguards was seriously wounded in the attack and taken to hospital by police.

Provincial police chief Mohammad Zaman said he believed the attackers were still in the area, and police were trying to track them down.

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid, speaking from an undisclosed location, said his organization’s fighters carried out the attack.

Andar is one of the troubled districts in Ghazni province, where the Taliban are the most active. Desiwal was targeted by militants several times in the past and was twice wounded.

Taliban fighters using motorbikes have killed several Afghan provincial officials in the southern and eastern provinces in recent months. The Taliban’s ultra-Islamic regime was ousted by a US-led military invasion in late 2001.